Features, Pros & Cons of Best Hybrid App Development Frameworks

The Need for Hybrid App Development Frameworks

Of course, anyone would prefer to hire one developer that can target all of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript and build an app for multiple platforms rather than hiring a developer for each platform. And this is only possible with hybrid app development. It makes things easier for developers as they can write once and create mobile apps that run on the major platforms without extra effort.

Hybrid app development frameworks, further, due to their amazing features reduce your efforts to a great extent. This is the reason why you should prefer hybrid app development and select hybrid frameworks for your next app project.

When you start searching for these hybrid frameworks you will across an abundance of names, however, choosing a right one is the main thing. Each framework comes with amazing features, functionality, pros, and cons that you must check out while choosing any of the hybrid frameworks.

Here we have depicted 5 best Hybrid app development frameworks in 2018 along with their features, pros, and cons so as to make your job easier.

Top 5 Best Hybrid App Development Frameworks

PhoneGap

PhoneGap is one of the popular hybrid frameworks used to build mobile applications. It is introduced and maintained by Adobe System. In order to build apps using PhoneGap framework, the developer does not necessitate having knowledge of mobile programming language they should only know the web-development languages like CSS, HTML, and JavaScript. It facilitates developers to utilize the same code for diverse platforms and use their existing knowledge of website development to swiftly develop apps supported by multiple mobile OS.

Features

Built on HTML, JavaScript and CSS3

Supports Android, iOS, BlackBerry, Palm, and Symbian

Native functionality

Open-source cross-platform

Allow developers add more functionality

Can be extended with native plug-ins &

Pros

Ease of development

Compatible on all the platforms

Taps into the device’s hardware like the accelerometer, geolocation, camera, and few others

Beneficial for all the stakeholders

Cons

Sometimes can be inefficient, especially while working with native apps

Does not support all the functionalities

The performance of apps is a little subdued compared to apps build for individual platforms

Ionic

Ionic is an absolute open-source SDK for hybrid mobile app development. It offers tools and services for creating Mobile UI with native look and feel. There is a huge community of developers who help to solve any of your queries regarding this framework. The CSS part of Ionic can be used to make native-looking designs and it can be combined with AngularJS to bring outstanding results. Its advanced features like interactive paradigms, mobile components, typography, etc. make it one of the efficient hybrid frameworks.

Features

Supports Angular material design

Compatible with HTML, CSS, JavaScript components or AngularJS

Scalable

Easy to Read

Easily maintainable

Pros

If you are familiar with CSS, HTML, and JavaScript you can learn Ionic very fast

Has a very good and well documentation

Quick development because you don’t have to write everything from scratch

Cons

Low performance compared to native apps

May not offer as much security as native application

Limited native functionality

React Native

Developed by Facebook, React Native is an open source platform for building native and hybrid apps. Due to the amazing features and effectiveness of React Native, it is considered as a future of Hybrid Mobile App Development. It is built on JavaScript. Some popular apps like Walmart, Facebook, UberEATS & Instagram etc. are built using React Native.

Features

Very Swift

Compatible with Android and iOS

Offers number of plugins

Better response time

Components are reusable

Supports Node.js

Hot reloading

Powerful performance

Less memory usage

Pros

Saves the development time

Better user experience due to Virtual DOM

One-direction data flow provides a stable code

An open-source library

Ease of learning

Cons

Poor documentation

Lagging SDK Updates

Third-party components are still limited

Onsen UI

Onsen UI is another effective and open source framework for hybrid app development. With Onsen UI you can build mobile apps with a truly native look. It is absolutely free to use and is a good alternative for businesses that have occasional app development requirements. Onsen UI is designed to work with a number of other cross-platform tools like React, Angular, and Vue.js.

Features

Great CLI (Command Line tool)

Easy to use

Brilliant documentation

Capability to dynamically adjust screen length for different devices like Smartphones or tablets

Pros

Improved UI

Device and Platform Independent

Optimized performance

Shorter Development Cycle

Supports custom theme

Cons

Does not perform implicitly on browser back button click

Does not support automatic logout when the browser is closed

Does not permit to edit attachment content on the fly

Does not support Standard Interactivity applet

Framework 7

Framework 7 is one of the most used hybrid app development frameworks. It is the fastest, free, open source and agile mobile HTML framework for building hybrid apps and web apps with native look and feel. Framework 7 is focused on iOS and Google Material design to get the best experience and simplicity. It is also a vital prototyping apps tool to show the working app prototype immediately when you require.

Features

Open Source

Number of UI elements and widgets

Use a lot of animation

Powerful performance.

Library agnostic

iOS and Android support

Pros

Very fast

Alive forum community

Native scrolling including fast animations

Easy to use and learn if you know the CSS, HTML or JavaScript.

Completely free from the license fee

Cons

Confusion over platform support

Average documentation

If you don’t want HTML 5 mark up based solutions then should not go for this

Conclusion

For any app project choosing an appropriate technology or framework is the foremost thing. Thus while selecting any of the frameworks you need to be careful and inspect each and every aspect of it be it its features, advantages or disadvantages.

As per our research, these 5 are the best Hybrid app development frameworks that are being preferred by many businesses and developers to build their hybrid apps. Now the decision is all yours, however, make sure to hire a precise team of developers who are well acquainted and experienced with these major hybrid frameworks.